<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>and they called it puppy love by snowlandsontop</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24723175">and they called it puppy love</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowlandsontop/pseuds/snowlandsontop'>snowlandsontop</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Memories, Childhood Sweethearts, Crushes, Foreshadowing, M/M, TBOSAS spoilers, ish?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:42:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24723175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowlandsontop/pseuds/snowlandsontop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sejanus Plinth always seems to fall hard for the wrong people.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sejanus Plinth/Coriolanus Snow, Sejanus Plinth/Marcus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>113</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>and they called it puppy love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes fic! I hope you enjoy! :)</p>
<p>Follow me on <a href="https://snowlandsonbottom.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sejanus’s memories of District 2 were a smeared mess of colors, sounds, and smells, with piercing emotions strewn within them. If you gave him a date from his past he could not likely tell you what event was occurring then, or where he had been most of the day, but he would be able to tell you how he had felt. </p>
<p>There was one day, however, that he remembered vividly.</p>
<p>He was small, about 7, and still in elementary school. This was before his Pa had started to side with the Capitol, so he still had friends. His teachers still called on him when he raised his hand. His lunch of war rationed nutritional crackers were not stomped on when left unattended, and he enjoyed them while sitting and chatting with other people. Things were good.</p>
<p>Sejanus had just run inside from recess, the winter’s cold still tinging his nose while the heat of the classroom warmed the rest of his body. He closed the door behind him, and started to remove his jacket and hat to place on the hooks on the wall. He dropped his hat, and when he bent over to pick it up, the door slammed open with a rush of children from outside, crushing his fingers in its hinge.</p>
<p>He cried out, gripping his fingers with his other hand, tears brimming in his eyes at the hot, sharp pain. The lot of children that had opened the door paid no mind, except for one. This boy took one look at teary eyed Sejanus, ran back outside, and retrieved a handful of snow, which he pushed into Sejanus’s hand with his own.</p>
<p>To little Sejanus, this was the most valiant thing anyone had ever done for him. The boy hadn’t even asked permission before helping him, he had just acted, like a knight or a soldier. At that point, all Sejanus knew about the boy was that his name was Marcus, but that soon changed.</p>
<p>From then on, Sejanus made an effort to learn everything he could about Marcus. He wanted to sit next to him during lunch, and talk to him during recess. He listened intently to his answers to questions during lessons. He would stare at him during class, and snap his eyes away and feel giddy when Marcus looked back at him. He liked Marcus, and he was pretty sure that Marcus liked him back.</p>
<p>Sejanus’s memories get fuzzy from there. Word got out that his Pa was donating money to the Capitol. His interactions with his classmates got exponentially colder. Kids gossiped about him, whispering things like ‘My momma says he’s a Capitol spy’. He would leave a clean desk before recess and return to graffiti calling him a traitor and a snake, and the teachers would be in no rush to clean it off. A sense of shame weighed heavily on his young shoulders, and Marcus acting no differently than the others towards him deepened it. It was like the snow had never happened, like he was part of the lot of kids who had ignored his tears. Like there was nothing special between them.</p>
<p>When Sejanus moved to the Capitol soon after the war was over, no doubt the result at least partly a consequence of his father’s financial aid, he knew he would never forget District 2. His home. And he would absolutely never forget about Marcus. He grew to think of him as a lesson. The experience taught him that romantic love was useless, that the people you care for the most can always turn on you. He realized that he wasn’t even sure the crush was mutual, and the possibility of one sided love was needlessly painful. He promised himself that he would never love someone like that again. </p>
<p>Then he met Coriolanus.</p>
<p>It was almost humorous how different Coriolanus and Marcus were. Coriolanus with his lack of color, his pale skin, robin’s egg eyes and white blond curls would almost look sickly if they weren’t accompanied by his strong figure. Marcus burst with color, with tanned skin, dark brown eyes and locks of straight, black hair.</p>
<p>Coriolanus was the only Capitol boy who didn’t tease Sejanus. Yes, Sejanus realized that it’s not difficult to treat someone decently, but it separated Coriolanus from the others. Just like Marcus being different from the group of kids who had opened the door.</p>
<p>Besides his Ma, Coriolanus was the only person Sejanus could relax around in the Capitol. The only person he felt wasn’t talking behind his back. He was his only friend.</p>
<p>Sejanus’s memories of the beginning of his mentorship were muddled with rage. Red hot memories rushing back at seeing Marcus’s face during the reaping. His insensitive Capitol classmates clapping him on the back at receiving such a ‘good contender’. Screaming at his father for doing this to him, calling him no better than the gamemakers, and his father not even bothering to argue with that statement.</p>
<p>Yet, throughout all of this, Coriolanus still managed to stand out to him. Coriolanus going to the zoo, Coriolanus sitting and eating with his tribute, Coriolanus backing Sejanus when he lost his temper with Dr. Gaul. Coriolanus managed to prove himself as quite the rebel, and Sejanus felt overwhelming admiration at this.</p>
<p>Sejanus was furious at seeing Marcus displayed like a rotten corpse in the arena. He felt as though it represented everything sick and twisted about the Capitol, and what it had done to ruin everything he loved, and he unleashed all of his anger into throwing that chair at the screen. Of course, it did nothing but bounce off harmlessly, showing how small he was when compared to the government force that had ruined his life. As he prowled the streets after leaving Heavensbee Hall, he thought, if only he could do something that impacted the Capitol, that showed its citizens the disgustingness of the Hunger Games. Something that made them understand they were torturing children for, what, the sake of keeping the districts in line? </p>
<p>He thought of when he sprinkled bread over Brandy’s body after the Peacekeepers had gunned her down. He made a beeline for the arena.</p>
<p>After finishing the funeral ritual over Marcus’s body, Sejanus didn’t care if he lived or died. All that mattered was Marcus, and proving that his death by Capitol hands was pointless. Lamina’s axe may have brought the final blow, but Marcus was as good as dead when he attempted to defy the Capitol by escaping.</p>
<p>Then Coriolanus arrived. Saving him once again. Coriolanus talked sense into him, proved to him that the Capitol would ensure his sacrifice was in vain. He couldn’t change the injustices of the world if he stopped living now. Electricity ran through his skin when Coriolanus touched his arm, and the giddy beating of his heart at it felt inappropriate in the desolate arena. And when they were forced to drop Marcus’s body and run for their lives, it felt symbolic, in a terrible way. After their escape, when they laid panting on the cement, writhing in pain, Sejanus managed to reflect on it. Maybe, just maybe, he had left his old, cold, dead love behind, to chase after the possibility of a new one. Coriolanus had valiantly saved him, and it reminded him of the snow Marcus had pressed into his hand.</p>
<p>“I’m so sorry, Coryo,” said Sejanus. “I’m so sorry.”</p>
<p>It seemed a more appropriate time than ever to try out the nickname Sejanus had heard Coriolanus’s loved ones call him. The night obscured Sejanus’s view of Coriolanus’s face, but he liked to think Coriolanus was pleased at the term of endearment. After all, how unlucky did Sejanus have to be to have two unrequited loves in a row?</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>